Hamas Had Nothing to Gain – And Everything to Lose – By Starting Violence Now

While Israel claims that Hamas was behind the murder of 3 Israeli boys which started this round of violence (and subsequent rocket attacks), the Times of Israel reported last week:

A new Palestinian jihadist group pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIL) [or “ISIS”] has claimed responsibility for the killing of three Israeli teenagers last month in the West Bank, as well as other recent deadly attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

On Tuesday evening, Israel’s antimissile system, called Iron Dome, intercepted a rocket “over the Tel Aviv area,” the army said, showing the reach of Gazan rocketry. The rocket was believed to be of Iranian design, a Fajr-5, and Islamic Jihad claimed credit. Tel Aviv opened some public shelters, and in a city near Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, people were instructed to leave the beach.

Palestine has gained a lot of support recently. For example, Palestine was accorded observer nation status by the United Nations. The movement to boycott and divest from companies doing business with Israel hasgatheredtremendousmomentum. And the two main factions in Palestinian politics – Hamas and Fatah – have formed a unity government.

As Michael Rivero points out, it makes no sense for Hamas to have committed brutal acts of violence right now, when it is securing quick progress through peaceful political means:

HAMAS and FATAH formed a unity government. They need the support of the world right now, and neither HAMAS or FATAH is going to carry out an act that would wreck the very public support they need. It’s like George Washington trying to kick out the British by shooting students in the colonial schools; it is just not going to happen.

And the Jewish Daily Forward notes that – if rogue Hamas members did carry out the murders – it was not with the permission or knowledge of Hamas leadership:

In the flood of angry words that poured out of Israel and Gaza during a week of spiraling violence, few statements were more blunt, or more telling, than this throwaway line by the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, Brigadier General Moti Almoz, speaking July 8 on Army Radio’s morning show: “We have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard.”

That’s unusual language for a military mouthpiece. Typically they spout lines like “We will take all necessary actions” or “The state of Israel will defend its citizens.” You don’t expect to hear: “This is the politicians’ idea. They’re making us do it.”

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It was clear from the beginning that the kidnappers weren’t acting on orders from Hamas leadership in Gaza or Damascus. Hamas’ Hebron branch — more a crime family than a clandestine organization — had a history of acting without the leaders’ knowledge, sometimes against their interests. Yet Netanyahu repeatedly insisted Hamas was responsible for the crime and would pay for it.

I did not know this. For some reason, the US media is not reporting it. It is busy trying to start a war with Russia and discussing Sara Palin’s new tv channel.

So a group, which is mostly using US weapons, is trying to start a broader war, against the IDF, which is using US weapons.

If arms dealers and manufacturers were held responsible for the harm their weapons do, we could begin to end the barbarity. A Harvard study years ago of 2000 arms races throughout history found that in 98% of the cases, more weapons led to war.

The US, as the largest arms dealing in the world, bears the responsibility for most of the violence and threats of war throughout the world.

It’s habrrd to come to this conclusion, but the US must be stopped as the leading purveyor of violence in the world and with a foreign policy (arms to Israel, Egypt, Honduras, etc) that promotes violence and war.

In Iraq, ISIS uses US weapons to battle the Iraqi military, using US weapons.
Everywhere, US weapons end up on both sides of war, going back to the 80’s when Reagan, secretly provided weapons to Iran (profits going to provide arms to death squads in Central America, secretly, illegally) while also providing arms (including WMD materials) to Iraq.

The only way to de-escalate the push towards more war is to end the arms race, which is fueled up wherever the US creates sectarian violence by toppling stable governments (most often, democratic) and introducing division and weapons.

Russia is the second largest broker, with nations like France and Sweden also making big profits on weapons of war. But it is the US which by introducing weapons into conflict areas motivates an escalation on the other side. Onliy if the US is stopped will there be a chance for peace.

Until we stop the power of the Military/Industrial establishment, the entire world is at risk of war…due to the iron logic of more weapons/more war, the vicious cycle of the arms race, which almost always leads to war. We have to start by stopping the power they exert by ending the power of wealt h to subvert our democratic republic to be controlled by pro-war forces, such as banks, energy, and weapons, all of whom profit from war

To stop rush to war, we must stop the flow of arms, and to do that, we must stop the flow of cash in the form of legal bribes.